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Accountability
Targeted Assistance
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Provider: America SCORES New England
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| Provider Details |
| Program Areas: | Reading, Writing, Mathematics |
| Grades: | 3, 4, 5 |
| Place of Service: | Student's School |
| Type of Organization: | Not For Profit |
Experience with:
Limited English Proficient (LEP) students: Yes
Students with disabilities: Yes |
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| Program Description (written by provider) |
| America SCORES New England uses the unique combination of soccer, writing, creative expression, and service-learning to teach literacy skills and math in the Boston Public Schools. The research-based "Power of Poetry" and "Writing for the Community" curricula offer a balance of creative writing, structured lessons in poetic forms, expository writing, and research. SCORES also uses the ETA/Cuisenaire Learning Place for Afterschool Math program that is aligned with state and local stabdards. SCORES seeks to serve the whole child with a balanced offering of literacy support, math and character building. |
| Evidence of Effectiveness (written by provider) |
America SCORES contracted with Philliber Research Associates to conduct a national evaluation of the program as it was currently being implemented in 12 sites. More than 1,300 youth and hundreds of adults participated in this evaluation which provided evidence that SCORES participants achieve positive outcomes in the areas of language arts as summarized below.
• Language Arts: Pre/post assessments of poetry and community description letters written by SCORES participants showed improvement in creative and expository writing abilities over the course of program participation. Poems showed an overall improvement in creativity/ideas, voice, and the use of poetic devices over a six-month period. Community letters improved in the areas of ideas and insight, description, clarity, voice, and mechanics/structure.
• Improvement in Writing Scores: To evaluate student progress in literacy skills, we evaluated the children’s writing using a rubric with a scale that ranges from 4 points to 36 points. In the sampling, 70% of the students improved in their total scores, and among these students there was an average increase of 3.7 points per student. Throughout the season, students moved from following guided poetry lessons to becoming independent poets. They learned to incorporate poetic devices in their later writings, some of which include: couplets, anaphora, end rhymes, personification, similes, and repetition.
• From fall to spring, there were increases in average rubric scores for the following areas: creativity/ideas; voice; mechanics/structure; use of adjectives and adverbs; and use of other poetic devices. The increases in creativity, voice, and use of other poetic devices are statistically significant. A similar approach was used to measure changes in participants’ expository writing abilities. Rubrics were used to score five expository writing components. There were statistically significant increases in average rubric scores for all areas assessed.
• In math, the NCTM calls for manipulatives to be used in teaching a wide variety of topics in math because it is supported by both learning theory and educational research in the classroom. With long-term use of manipulatives in math, educators have found that students make gains in verbalizing mathematical thinking; discussing math ideas and concepts; expressing problems and solutions using a variety of math symbols; and working collaboratively. The following are some specific areas in which research shows manipulatives are especially helpful: counting, place value, computation, problem solving, fractions, ratios, and algebraic abilities. |
| District(s) Served |
Please note that these are the districts this provider is approved to serve through this contract. Not all of these districts may be required to offer supplemental educational services through Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act. Check with your school or district for more details.
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